WVU Announces Partnership with Jeremy Darlow to Educate Student-Athletes on Personal Branding

Neal Brown getting ahead of the curve on preparing for the NCAA's new guidelines

Last week, West Virginia head football coach Neal Brown hinted at the program agreeing to a partnership that would help the student-athletes on the football team learn about personal branding.

"It's about education and educating our players on how to take advantage of [NIL]. How to create a brand, what a brand looks like. That's something that we got ahead of and we feel really good about our plan," Brown said in last week's virtual press conference.

Prior to Brown's Zoom meeting with the media, the NCAA released guidelines to profit off of their name, image, and likeness (NIL). 

Thursday morning, the West Virginia football program officially announced its partnership with Jeremy Darlow, a nationally respected branding consultant, per school release.

"Our football players will be learning how to build their own brand from a person who wrote the book on the subject and is an individual who has worked with some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment," Brown said in the release. "We're excited to provide that level of expertise to our players." 

Darlow also shed some light on the importance of educating the young student-athletes.

"The goal is to teach athletes how to build personal brands that set them up for success in life, regardless of what happens in sports. Too often athletes are defined entirely by their athletic careers without developing influence in other areas of passion. My goal is to change that. My mission is to teach athletes how to create a personal brand and reputation that sets them up for life after sports. I'm proud to work with West Virginia, which believes in preparing their student-athletes for life after college."

This is an extremely important partnership for the student-athletes since the percentage of Division-I players that turn pro is extremely low. In fact, only 3.8% of Division-I were selected in the 2019 NFL Draft, according to the NCAA. Considering that very few make it beyond the collegiate level, understanding the business side of things is very valuable.

The partnership will help prepare the student-athletes for the name, image, and likeness guidelines, as well as how to use their personal branding beyond their playing days.

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